This weekend a driver honked as he came up behind me on a winding street that was about to open onto a major intersection as if I needed to cede the space and get pressed against parked cars. When I motioned with my hand for him to calm down (it wasn’t a profane gesture) he became more distressed. I told him “don’t honk at me; just don’t hit me.” To which he replied “it’s my horn; next time I’ll hit you.”

The notion of car as extension of self is getting greater rather than less with many people and this would have to be combatted as well. The laws you describe above exist in some places but they’re minimally enforced; it’s nnot just the fines there would need to be a greater culture of criminalization to make a real difference with some sectors of the population.

the thing to address is the attitude of drivers - making more laws and fining people just adds fuel to the fire, and doesn't get to the proximate cause/issue

Yeah, I ultimately feel that way as well, but in parts of the US it’s hard to reach certain sectors of the population in terms of attitude change; the demographics and lives are simply too heterogenous to reach everyone. Ultimately, I would much rather take on driving culture, but that’s a big task and the resentment is already there for some. May as well put some criminalized fear in them. But then I live in an area where “liberals” count it it a victory if they persuade the city to paint white lines in the street and call it a bike lane.

Far more stringent requirements for a drivers’ license: laws of the road and some civic comprehension could be one approach I suppose.

"I was riding with Bernie Eisel and was sitting in his wheel in a slight downhill, when suddenly a car, ignoring the stop sign, came at us from the right. Bernie just managed to escape him, but I could not do that and hit the driver's door at full speed. My bike was completely destroyed and my knee as well."

Hit-and-run crash deaths are rising nationwide, and pedestrians and bicyclists account for close to 70% of the victims, according to a new report, as more people cycle to work and motor-vehicle fatalities are at a near-decade-high level.

The number of hit-and-run fatalities jumped 61% from 2009 to 2016, the most recent year for which data are available, according to the report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

About 68% of fatal hit-and-run victims in 2016 were pedestrians or cyclists, compared with 61% a decade earlier, according to federal data cited in the report.

In 2016, 1,980 fatal hit-and-run crashes across the U.S. resulted in 2,049 deaths—both record highs in the roughly four decades that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has tracked such data, the report said.

“On the one hand, these statistics are a bit deflating. On the other hand, we can hope they serve as a wake-up call,” said Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety advocacy and research.

A big reason for the rise in fatal hit-and-run crashes is that deadly car crashes are up overall, the foundation said. Traffic-related fatalities surpassed 40,000 last year, the second year in a row, according to the National Safety Council.

Mr. Nelson said one possible reason those deaths have risen is growing distraction in the smartphone era. A recent report by the Governors Highway Safety Association said texting by drivers and pedestrians alike may help explain why pedestrian deaths have hit their highest levels in decades.

Another potential factor Mr. Nelson cited is the push by public health officials to encourage people to walk and bike more. The downside, he said, is those activities make people more vulnerable in the event of a crash involving a car or truck.

The number of bike commuters nationwide has ebbed in recent years, but rose nearly 40% from 2006 to 2016, when 864,000 rode to work, according to the Census Bureau.

To improve safety, he said, pedestrians and cyclists need physical barriers like protected bike lanes—an idea gaining popularity around the U.S. but also causing fights in some places over reduced parking or travel lanes.

The AAA report says state legislatures are cracking down on hit-and-run drivers. In every state it is illegal for a driver involved in a crash to flee. Over the past five years, more than a dozen states have passed new laws typically boosting jail time, fines and the length of a driver’s license suspension. But the report said researchers have found legal sanctions don’t appear to have a deterrent effect.

Mr. Nelson said motorists should know that staying at the scene isn’t only the law, it can help ensure victims get prompt medical care.

The ultimate aim is to prevent crashes, he said, and his message for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists is: “Just pay attention, open your eyes, keep your head up and focus on what you’re doing.”

The judge said Collier's case was at the lower end of the scale of carelessness and the penalty should reflect this.

What. The. Actual. ****?

Yes, I know that in that type of situations cyclists have a responsibility too, making sure they aren't in the blindspot. However...

1: We don't know if Den Ouden had done everything he could to make sure he wasn't in the blindspot.2: The least the driver could have done was stop his damn vehicle and check what he'd hit. Especially considering that fact that I'd imagine hitting a person would be quite different from hitting a pot hole or a cone...

Pity. I was so looking forward to the spectacle of a trial by jury, followed by public execution. Or at least a pillorying. The end of a saga I've been following news of since I was alerted to it last September. And chapeau to the son of the cager, who likely was the only reason police were able to discover the driver's identity.

Marshall Neely III, 59, of Franklin, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to reckless aggravated assault, lying to a federal agent and obstruction of justice.

Neely was indicted July 28 after he hit and injured a bicyclist with his vehicle July 8, 2017 while he drove on the Natchez Trace Parkway. After he hit the bicyclist, Neely failed to stop and fled the scene.

According to court documents, on the morning of July 8, 2017, two people were riding their bicycles on the Natchez Trace Parkway when a black Volvo sport-utility vehicle hit one from behind. The impact knocked the rider to the ground and destroyed the bicycle. The cyclist was injured and taken to Williamson County Medical Center by ambulance. The other cyclist had a helmet-mounted camera, which recorded the collision, as well as the Volvo driving away from the scene. The video of the incident was later posted online and contained a visible license plate and other decals, which led to the identification of Neely.

The same evening, law enforcement officials arrived at Neely’s house and found him unconscious on the floor. Neely later admitted he was driving on the Natchez Trace Parkway earlier in the day and claimed someone threw a bicycle at his car. He also admitted after seeing the video posted online, he removed the decals from the rear window of his car because he knew they would lead to his identification.

According to the plea agreement, Neely agreed to accept a term of imprisonment of 10 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release, when he is sentenced Aug. 17. The agreement also calls for Neely to pay $1,210 in restitution to the victim.

After 100 years of marketing, we have continued to believe – and want to believe – that the car gives us unfettered personal liberty.

So we designed our cities and our streets for them. And the two-hour commute has become normalized to a public that spends the equivalent of 22 days a year just getting to and from work. Meanwhile, others are seeking a new way to live. It doesn’t take long to expose the environmental, social and health costs of sitting in traffic. It is nothing like freedom. But the power of the idea that cars bring us freedom – despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary – is so pervasive that active resistance to change is fierce....the tragic rise of cycling and pedestrian deaths in a city such as Toronto, the biggest city in one of the world’s most progressive countries, demonstrates that we are caught in the transition. We are adding density and pedestrians and cyclists without transforming the design of our streets, and in many cases refusing even to lower speeds limits, which tends to reduce deaths dramatically.

"Are you going to believe me or what you see with your own eyes?"

“It doesn’t matter what I do. People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”

One of the best pieces I’ve seen in cycling journalism. It’s bizarre how someone who was once quite prominent in their local cycling scene can ostracise themselves so quickly and completely. To go from being a well known and respected former NRS racer to a dangerous lunatic and eventually an anti cycling campaigner would be too far fetched for me to believe if I didn’t already know a good part of the story.

I hope Ivan seeks help, but I doubt he will. He was even messing around trying to cause trouble in the comments on CTs Facebook page under his own name for a few laughs.

Pretty sure that around here you'd be hit with additional punishment for stuff like that. "You hit a person, and you didn't make sure your vehicle was actually safe to operate!"But, no... according that the court it's "an error anyone could make", guess don't checking if your brakes work is " an error" too.

I've been saying for years that the proximate cause that needs dealing with is driver/road user attitude.Unfortunately, Australian motorists seem proud of their poor attitude and hatred towards cyclists...You only need to read comments attaching to any cycling article in any news platform in Aust to see this.